1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a file management apparatus that sorts a plurality of files into a plurality of folders to manage the files, a control method for the file management apparatus, a computer program, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, personal computer (hereinafter “PC”) users have been faced with the need to manage large numbers of files. Further, users are required to manage data in different formats, such as image data, music data and document data.
In order to store and manage large volumes of data, users store data temporarily recorded on the PC's hard disk drive to removable storage media such as CD-ROM or DVD-ROM. For example, with Microsoft Windows (registered trademark) XP, it is proposed that image data be stored to CD-ROM.
In order to easily retrieve data recorded on CD-ROM, it is proposed in the case of image data captured with a digital camera, for example, that data be automatically sorted by the date and time on which it was shot. Further, Ulead Systems WinCDR (registered trademark), for example, implements the proposal that HTML for indexing be created to make data more readily viewable.
On the other hand, a method has been proposed for apparatuses that use random access mass storage media such as optical disks that involves recording captured image data after automatically creating folders which reflect the intentions of the user in response to a user instruction to create folders (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-115998).
Users sometimes rerecord data recorded on a plurality of CD-ROMs to a DVD-ROM, for example. The number of storage media can thereby be reduced, since the capacity of a DVD-ROM is greater than that of a CD-ROM, enabling the user to secure a storage place.
Rerecording data, however, requires much work on the part of the user.
FIG. 15 shows data on a plurality of CD-ROMs 1511 being copied to a new DVD-ROM 1514. Firstly, data 1512 recorded on the CD-ROMs 1511 is written to the DVD-ROM 1514 via the PC's hard disk drive 1515 or the like. In cases such as this, the CD-ROMs 1511 often manage data with their own folder structures. Consequently, data of disparate folder structures is copied to the DVD-ROM 1514, making it difficult for the user to retrieve data to the detriment of usability.
Also, given that even storage media being used for the first time have limited capacity, it is not always possible to store all of the data of the plurality of CD-ROMs 1511 to the DVD-ROM 1514. The user thus needs to take note of the overall size of data stored on the plurality of CD-ROMs 1511, and copy data to the DVD-ROM 1514 after organizing the data to fit onto the DVD-ROM 1514.
In view of the above problems, a feature of the present invention lies in automatically sorting plural sets of data read from external storage media into a plurality of folders to manage the data.